The former official gym was in the outskirts of the city, and it wasn’t the most impressive building I had seen, and I came from Pallet Town. As far as my research showed, this wasn’t the original gym building, that one had been in a more central location, but apparently, after a few years of trying to reclaim their position, the city leadership had realized that there was no hope of getting their spot back, so they had torn it down to build a park there.
I know that must have been a very bitter experience for the former gym team, but I had seen that park and I have to say, it was a rather nice park, with plenty of green space for pokemon and people to relax in, amidst all the concrete and noise of a city.
At first glance, this looked like a building that was past its prime, but still very serviceable, with big enough doors to allow larger pokemon to pass. It was only one story though, but it had an outside fighting area, and a bit of free space in general in what seemed to be like a 20-meter radius around the building. A gym was supposed to be a place of constant action and movement, with countless people moving in and out, doing things. The two trainers occupying the fighting space with their pokemon were downright quiet from what I had expected.
I entered, finding the door open after knocking hadn’t really yielded any reaction.
“Hello?” I said, raising my voice with the hope of getting the attention of someone. “I came here to fight for the badge.”
I walked through the doors, and what greeted me was a very basic reception, only without anyone manning it. There was even a bell, so I stepped up and rang it a few times. This time, after twenty seconds, I heard footsteps hurrying towards me and a plump lady, older than my mother, came into sight.
She was wearing a green dress, had her blonde hair in curls going down to her shoulder and she was beaming.
“Oh, it has been a few days since we had a challenge. It is so nice to meet you, dear.” She paused for a second. “You are here for the challenge, right?”
“Hello,” I said again and returned the smile. “And yes, I’m here for that. Could go right now, if possible.”
She nodded, typing something on the computer in front of her, and hit enter. She then turned to me. “I just wrote Frederik, and he will be happy to fight you. Poor guy, has been anxious for a while. Nothing to do, you understand.”
I nodded, hoping to convey my sympathy. Fewer people were challenging him than I had expected.
She then led me to the indoor battle arena. “We are getting maybe one challenger a week, sometimes two. There were more, but not many people visit Hop Hop Hop Town during their gym circuit, and even fewer of those find their way to our gym. Frederik has appealed multiple times to put up more signs, making them aware of our gym and lead them here, but the mayor and city council has refused. I think they are a bit embarrassed and want to try something else, and Frederick is too stubborn to do that. Oh, it is just so unfortunate.”
I was getting more information about the state of the gym, its leader and the local political landscape than I ever wanted to know.
“That does sound unfortunate,” I said a bit lamely, not really knowing what to say about that.
“Oh, I am sorry dear, I must be boring you with our problems. It’s just nice to talk about it with someone new.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I assuaged her, just as we entered the battle room. “I guess I am just surprised that he would need their permission to advertise or hang up posters or give interviews and the like.”
“He can do that,” she said, “it’s just that he doesn’t want to deal with the media. He wants to be acknowledged by the city and not treated like its embarrassing secret.”
That sounded like a him-problem. The way I saw it, he’d have to suck it up, get some people in here through whatever means necessary and once he had gotten more popularity, push his case then.
But that wasn’t advice that some random rookie who had literally just wandered in should give, it would be ridiculously arrogant to do that.
“That’s rough,” I just said, “I hope things will look up soon, for you guys. You have a nice building here.”
And it was nice. Not terribly new or advanced, but still nice.
“Thank you, dear,” she said with a sad smile. “He will probably arrive soon. Do you want something to drink?”
“No, thank you, I’m just gonna wait here.”
“That’s okay, I still have some things to do in the back, just wait a few minutes and he will be right here. Have fun!”
With a cheery wave, she turned around and left.
Well, while it was not really my business, I did get an interesting and a bit disappointing first impression of former gym leader Frederick, and that was one of a bitter old man, who was unable to let go of the past and who was too proud to change, even though his current path was not at all working.
That didn’t necessarily mean this would translate to an inflexible and outdated battle style, mind you. But it was something to keep in mind. Although, maybe not too much, since I hardly had all the information and only the account of the resident helper at the Gym. Way too early for any judgement calls.
I fished out a piece of gum, and popped it in my mouth. Chewing slowly and enjoying the texture and flavor, I started to inspect the battleground. It was a small field, with the ground being normal earth where pokemon could dig in if they needed to, regular size, with roughly ten meters between the trainers once they each stood on one part of the field, with the space in-between reserved for their fighting pokemon. The limits were clearly outlined with white chalk.
I know he was using normal type pokemon, but I couldn’t really know which two he would send against me, so type wise, there wouldn’t be an advantage or disadvantage for either of us, which was just fine for me.
Not even a minute later, a man stepped into the room, and while I had known that the former gym leader had been an older man, I hadn’t been prepared for how old he was. Despite being slightly hunched over due to his clear old age, he still towered over me with nearly two meters. With his tanned skin from exposure to the sun, a wide frame and a barrel chest, he cut an imposing figure, even in his cargo shorts and white t-shirt. His short hair, though, was snow-white, as was his beard that went down to his neck.
His face, though, showed his age in a way that the rest of his body somehow didn’t, and I still couldn’t exactly guess what it was. Maybe 60 or 70? 80? More? He still looked like he was using an Onix to jump rope.
“So, you’re the young lass who wants to challenge me, is that right?” he grumbled, voice deep and loud.
“Yes, sir, that’s me”, I replied, standing straight as he came to stop in front of me, and I had to crane my neck back to meet his gaze.
“Great. I’m Frederick, and I was the normal-type gym leader of Kanto, but by now, I’m just an old man who is happy to show you youngsters a trick or two.”
“I’m Green, from Pallet Town.”
His eyebrows rose. “You come from little Sammy’s town?”
I didn’t have a clue who little Sammy was before a thought struck me.
“Do…do you mean, Professor Oak?”
He rolled his eyes, “bah, I remember when he came through my doors, cocky as you please, convinced he was Arceus’ gift to the world. He wasn’t a fancy professor then! Gave him a bit of a reality check.” He barked out a laugh, “Of course, he has somewhat improved since then. Do me a favor, will you. Tell him to come visit me again one of these days, it’s rude to expect his elders to come to him. And make sure to tell him not to skimp on the good stuff, the ungrateful miser.”
Well, that was information I was completely unprepared to receive.
“Sure,” I said, “I’ll tell him.” I paused for a second, wrestling with myself before finally deciding to ask. “Okay, I just have to ask, so sorry if I’m rude, but how old are you if you beat the professor when he was a kid as an established gym leader?”
He laughed, “that has been some while ago, hasn’t it?” Frederick ran his fingers through his long beard, “Well, let’s see. I think we had our first match when I had already been gym leader for more than a few years and I got that post with 23 or so. Not exactly sure, give or take a few years. That was over 50 years ago. Heh, time sure does fly.”
Well, suddenly I liked my chances in this fight a lot less if he had been an active pokemon trainer for longer than my parents had been actually alive.
“So, are you good with three on three?” he asked, looking at my belt.
“One of my three pokemon is Magikarp, so I would prefer a two on two.”
He frowned, “I dislike that format, but that’s how a lot of modern gyms do it nowadays, I suppose. Very well, we shall do it that way. How many badges do you have?”
“None, this would be my first gym fight, be it official or unofficial.”
“Wanting to get some practice in before you go for the real deal, is it?” and the way he framed it made me think he wasn’t super fond of that strategy. Thinking of it from his perspective, I guess it was a bit insulting.
“When you frame it like that, it does make me sound like a jerk.”
He let out a humorless laugh as he took position on his side of the battlefield and I did mine. “That’s how things are now. I don’t like it, but while it’s less glorious, it’s still a valuable duty.” Suddenly a wide, sharp smile appeared on his face, between his white beard, showing his teeth. “But lass, if you thought this was the easy fight, to warm you up, you have miscalculated. Now, release your first pokemon.”
“Shouldn’t you release your pokemon first?” I asked, but I still plucked Eevee’s pokeball from my belt.
“It’s different nowadays, but back then, the challenger released their pokemon first and the Gym Leader sent out a pokemon to better match them. Not to go for a more advantageous counter, but to better challenge and teach. That’s how we’re going to do it here, so don’t worry about me going for a lame counter.”
I guess that was a way of doing things. I threw my pokeball, and Eevee materialized on the field, her guard already up. I had told all of my pokemon earlier what we were going to do, so they all knew what was up.
“Be ready,” I told her, and watched him look at Eevee for a few seconds, nodding once.
“She looks good. Healthy. Not too shabby for a rookie trainer. How long have you been together?”
“I started last month and got her on my second day. Traveled here from Pallet, and we have been training ever since.”
“Heh, deciding on improving the basics before going out and battling. Cautious, but I can’t say that’s the wrong move. Well, we’ll see, I suppose.” He reached for his own belt, which had six pokeballs, with two of them being a different, darker color. “Okay, old girl, let’s show them our strength.”
Out of the pokeball came a Doduo, a bipedal bird pokemon with two heads, each attached to a very long neck. Its long legs made sure that the beast was towering over my Eevee.
“I figure that’s a decent enough start to show me if you know your stuff.
“I actually expected a Raticate or Meowth.”
“A lot of people do, and I had a few, but unfortunately, they all passed away, and I just couldn’t replace them with new ones. But that’s just what happens when you live to my age. You have to deal with that. Enough stalling though. Are you ready?”
I nodded.
“We begin on three.”
The second the countdown was done, Eevee looked at Doduo, meeting all four of her eyes as best as she could, and made an adorable expression by activating Baby-Doll Eyes. Doduo glowed white for a second, making me glad that her attack had been lowered, but unfortunately, she also had immediately started sprinting.
While he had practiced that, Doduo was unfortunately a very fast runner, and it dashed toward Eevee, and while Eevee had managed to dodge the first Peck attack of the left head, the right head did manage to scratch her, making her growl in pain.
“Use Sand Attack,” I ordered her and her glowing left paw hit the ground and a concentrated blast of sand hit one of the heads, making it shake and squawk in annoyance.
Unfortunately, Doduo had two heads and the other one could see perfectly fine and attacked again by slamming its beak on Eevee’s head.
There weren’t many pokemon with several heads or eyes, so we hadn’t really trained with that in mind. An obvious oversight, in hindsight.
Eevee scurried back and launched another Sand Attack, only the Doduo was ready for it and leaped to the side. The second it landed on its feet again, it dashed forward, listening to Frederick’s order to use Fury Attack.
The second head was really annoying since even the blinded one, with its eyes closed, could seemingly attack as long as the other could see, as it launched a flurry of attacks with both of its heads.
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Eevee tried her best to dodge the attacks and managed to avoid being hit by most of the attacks, even though the Doduo got a few hits in. Thankfully, we had managed to lower its attack at the beginning, or we might already have been knocked out.
The two separated, with Eevee gaining a bit of distance, and I could see her growling and breathing hard, all tense. Even her fur was standing up and she looked a bit bigger than usual.
“Stay calm,” I told her. “Think about our plan. Use Tail Whip.” She obeyed and wagged her tail, and I could see the move having an effect.
Frederik, of course, wasn’t passively watching. The second head had used the time to rub its neck over the first head's face and get out the worst of the sand, meaning both could see again.
That wasn’t great, but at least it would be able to take fewer hits. We couldn’t afford to trade too many hits at this point, especially since Eevee was already pretty tired and the Doduo had a higher attack potential.
But we had a plan.
“Use Growl now, but be ready,” I told her, wanting less to reduce its attack even more than I wanted Frederick to commit to an attack now.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Frederick yelled, “Finish this with Pluck!”
Doduo started running towards Eevee, and I waited for a heartbeat before roaring “NOW!”
And Eevee immediately aborted the Growl and instead launched a Quick Attack, by shooting forwards, running at full speed towards the Doduo who was not ready to receive the counter-attack. Its heads were unable to stop Eevee from slamming her body into Doduo’s, making both heads cry as it fled to the side and landed hard on the ground, but it managed to get up pretty quickly. Given the way it was breathing and not standing fully up, it did some damage.
“Not bad, use Leer now.”
All of its eyes glowed an ominous red and I could see Eevee wince, and I didn’t like that her attacks would be weaker now, but Doduo would hopefully only need one or two more hits before it was brought down.
“Tail Whip again,” I said, blowing a small bubble with my gum, holding my hat in my hand and I noticed that I was gripping it hard.
Once again, Eevee’s tail was wagging left and right and once more, but this time, Frederick didn’t take the bait and allowed that attack to go through and instead used that time for his Dodou to take a breath and regain some of its stamina.
Doduo’s defense was lowered again, and now it would only take one more attack to bring it down. At least, so I hoped, but now it had much better chances to land an attack that would bring down my Eevee.
I felt a smile appearing on my face, as I was enjoying this moment of tension, and the energy in the air.
“Be ready, girl,” I told her, “You only need one more hit, make it count.”
This would have been a great moment to use Swift, but there was no use crying over something we couldn’t change at the moment. But one thing I had noticed was that while Dodou’s speed was formidable, it wasn’t really faster than Eevee’s. And while its long legs might enable it to be a far superior long-distance runner than Eevee could ever be, that wasn’t really applicable to the situation at hand. On the contrary, its long legs meant that it wasn’t as agile and couldn’t change directions as easily as Eevee could.
On the other hand, it didn’t need to do that in order to land its attacks. Once it stood still, its heads would be able to attack all around its body as they controlled everything in a short radius around it, and I didn’t feel comfortable to risk Eevee having to dodge two heads like that.
Huh, then again, she wouldn’t need to, would she? Not if she tried to stay on one side of the Doduo’s body so that only one head could attack her.
“You aren’t doing half bad so far,” Frederick mused, “but a bit passive, I’d say. Very well, I’ll indulge you one more time.” He ordered his Doduo to attack and Dodou started running again. This time, it was a bit slower, and ready to dodge or at least react to another Quick Attack.
“Stay on its left side,” and Eevee dashed forward, only to stop and then break away hard to the side. Doduo tried to emulate her, but by the time it had turned, Eevee was already gone from there and had gotten a bit closer. “Sand Attack,” I told her, and launched another wave of sand against the face closest to her and it hit, with Doduo screeching in distress. It hit only one but that was the opening we needed.
“Finish it with a Quick Attack!”
“Quick Attack!” Frederick roared, mirroring my attack and suddenly, with a step to the side that brought Doduo a bit further away from Eevee it also simultaneously allowed its second head to lounge forward and parried her attack. Glowing beak met glowing paws and unfortunately, Eevee was pushed back, although they didn’t really damage each other.
That was unfortunate, because Eevee had burned a lot more stamina in that last action than Doduo had, and the blinded head wasn’t as significant of a disadvantage as I would have liked.
This fight really laid bare all of our current shortcomings. We were lacking a lot of options and tools.
“Ready for Sand Attack and then jumping Tackle,” I said, and it felt inadequate. I guess this was where my shortcomings were laid bare as well, since I couldn’t really think of anything to get the edge. The battlefield was open and empty, with nothing to hide behind or to take advantage off. Both pokemon were tired, but Doduo had the higher range and had a weird numerical advantage, that was not quite a two on one, but it also didn’t really feel like a one on one either.
Maybe I should have opened with Squirtle, his water attacks would have had changed the battlefield a bit. It wouldn’t have been an outrageous change, but it would have been something.
That was a thought for later, though.
Eevee listened and made herself ready, while Doduo was once again keeping its distance, one head still partly blinded while the other was keeping Eevee firmly in its sight, its beak opening threateningly.
They stood for a few seconds, which made me realize that Frederick wasn’t going to attack again, at least not now, and if we waited for too long, Doduo would have shaken off the Sand Attack.
“Abort that. Get closer and attack with Quick Attack. Don’t aim for the heads. Put everything into this and make sure to dance around it.”
The problem with the two heads is that they and the necks they were attached to were flexible and sturdy and more than able to block attacks. Oddly enough, its main body was the least sturdy part, but both heads and its long legs allowed it to sufficiently protect it.
So, any attacks from now on needed to either overpower the head which would move it to either block or counter-attack, or circumvent it altogether. I didn’t like our chances for the former, and the odds were low for the latter, but the second was still the better bet.
Eevee ran forward, but didn’t move to attack just yet. She knew that the Doduo was ready. So she got close enough that she was in striking range, but it waited. Eevee dashed to the right and then immediately zigzagged to the left. Doduo tried to step back and whirl its body around, but Eevee changed direction once more, and then pretended to lunge forward which was finally enough to trigger a reaction from the Doduo and its unharmed head thrust forward, its beak glowing with the color of flight type energy,
Eevee was able to dodge the Peck, and I was proud that she made a quick dash between its now wide legs and then launched a Quick Attack from just behind and the second head was not ready to react without the vision of the first and Eevee managed to hit right in its bottom right flank.
Both of its heads cried in pain as it stumbled a few feet, but to my dismay, it was still standing.
“That was better,” Frederick complimented us, but you wouldn’t know it from his expressionless face. “Still not aggressive enough, but that’ll do, I suppose.”
Checking both of our pokemon, both were dirty, injured and panting in exhaustion. Neither one was down, but Eevee had burned all of her stamina, and the tank was too empty for another such attack. Similarly, the Doduo was most likely hurting a lot more, but could maybe launch another attack, but given its wobbly feet, it wouldn’t be able to do so without some cost.
“I’m going to call this a draw,” Frederick stated and returned his Doduo.
I nodded, not super psyched about it, but I saw his point. “Good job, Eevee. Take your rest.” I was just about to recall her when she turned to me and let out a low whine. “Oh, you want to watch the next round? Sure. You have to leave the field, though.”
She nodded and trotted beside me, allowing me to give her a quick rub on her back.
Frederick seemed satisfied. “Now, pick your second pokemon.”
I had to give that to him, he had picked a pokemon that had demanded everything Eevee had, and she had just managed to match it. With that in mind, I was exited what he had in prospect next.
My next choice was of course clear. Magikarp was not yet a feasible pick, so it was Squirtle. Seeing my starter materialize in front of me, ready to battle, made me feel exited. We had trained hard and right now, Squirtle was the heavy hitter of my team.
“Oh, nice specimen. Sammy does like handing those out.”
Frederick nodded and plucked the fourth pokeball from his belt and released his pokemon. I didn’t like being surprised by his Lickitung. It wasn’t a pokemon I knew super well, beyond the fact that they were among the rarest of the Kanto pokemon and that while they were normal type, their tongues secreted a very powerful paralyzing saliva. Their tongues were also very long and strong, enough to wrap around enemies a few meters away and lift them.
It was very much a close to mid-range pokemon with a very dangerous gimmick. There weren’t that many in the higher echelons of professional battling though, for the very simple reason that its powerful gimmick had a lot of counters. Even though it was, in a lot of ways, a niche choice, it was a very effective one right now since I couldn’t employ those counters as much as I would like.
I really didn’t like this.
“Very well, let’s go,” Frederick said, and once again, left me with the first move.
“Water Gun,” I ordered, because while very predictable, it was still the correct choice.
Before the water beam hit its stomach, the Lickitung extended its tongue and blocked the water with it.
I wasn’t too worried, because I expected that. Lickitung weren’t fast enough to dodge most attacks by moving their bodies and tended to block things with their tongue. And while it was a very strong and durable tongue, covered with dangerous fluids which protected it, I wasn’t so sure it felt nothing being hit with a reasonably strong Water Gun.
Once the Water Gun petered out, the Lickitung pulled its tongue back, giving us a cheeky smile.
“Well done, now let’s hit them with Rollout.”
Lickitung curls its round body into a ball and starts rolling towards Squirtle.
“Counter with Rapid Spin,” I said, still calm, because while being hit by Rollout would hurt, it wasn’t as dangerous for us as being hit by its tongue was.
Squirtle immediate retreated into his shell and started spinning, and slammed into the oncoming Licktung. Right now, both pokemon were using attacks that made it difficult to control where they were going. Still, I liked Squirtle’s chances because when they hit each other, while Lickitung was bigger and heavier, Squirtle’s shell was harder and spun faster. Not to mention the shell was protecting Squirtle, so I was certain that in an exchange of blows, Squirtle would come ahead.
Both pokemon flew away from each other, but Lickitung was the one letting out a cry of pain as it landed and rolled on the ground, snapping out of the Rollout.
“Follow up with another Water Gun!” I ordered Squirtle, and he obeyed, nailing the Lickitung with another water beam as it was trying to get up, hitting it right in the back of its head. The Lickitung’s face was pressed to the ground, and it let out a pained howl.
Unfortunately, that is when our luck shifted, as it managed to get up surprisingly fast and its tongue shot out just as quickly, giving Squirtle not enough time to dodge as he was still recovering from his own taxing, successive moves. The tongue slammed into his head with enough force to knock him over backwards, and while the damage to the head was worrying, I was far more concerned with the paralyzing effects of it. Still, a turtle on his back wasn’t a great position either, but thankfully, there were still options for us.
“Withdraw,” I ordered him and he immediately obeyed, pulling all his limbs and head inside his shell.
“Ooh, turtling up, I see. We’ll see if that works out for you. Go for Wrap now, boy.”
His tongue shot out again, and instead of licking, it wrapped itself around the shell, but that is what I had been counting on.
“Now, Rapid Spin as hard as you can!”
Before the tongue pulled itself tight, Squirtle started spinning and I could see from the wince of the pink pokemon, and from the tongue loosening away from Squirtle, that the short contact had hurt his remarkably tough tongue.
“Water Gun,” I said, knowing this was a bit risky. Combining two moves is never easy, and there was a random factor involved, but right now, it was literally impossible for Squirtle to miss since the tongue was all around him.
Water shot out of the hole his head was usually coming from, and two things happened; The water started to hit the tongue, as the shell was still spinning, but it wasn’t particularly hard since it never hit the same spot for too long, but at the same time, the water had propelled the shell forward, making it connect with the tongue again and that was enough for the Lickitung to pull it back completely.
That is also when using two attacks caught up with Squirtle as he stopped both, and got out of his shill, standing up again but panting.
He gave the Lickitung a mocking squeak though, for which his opponent returned a harsh growl.
While I felt like we had done the best we could in that situation, I couldn’t help but feel that the Lickitung had gotten away better from this. We had slightly hurt it, but for the stamina and energy we had wasted, it didn’t really seem like a worthwhile exchange.
Of course, letting Lickitung grab the Squirtle and slam him against the ground a few times wouldn’t have been better, but still.
“That was a neat trick,” Frederick admitted, “but not very effective.”
No, it hadn’t been. Squirtle was tired, and Lickitung was slowly walking towards him, his tongue wiggling outside his mouth, waiting for the order to attack once more.
But for the last month, if we had practiced one thing, it was Squirtle’s ability to use Water Gun, even after he was tired and exhausted.
It didn’t mean he wouldn’t run out of energy, but we had one or two more shots left that could do some real damage that he wouldn’t necessarily be expecting from a pokemon that seemed so tired.
That said, while tired, the Rapid Spins had increased his speed and the Withdraw had increased his defense, so he was also in better shape than he looked. It all depended on timing things right.
Seeing that I was once again waiting for him to act, he shook his head. “You’re too reactive, girl. You can’t always wait on the enemy to make the first move.”
“It’s the correct move, though,” I said, and it was. Right now, we didn’t have the juice to set the flow of the battle, and committing to any attack first would allow for Lickitung to counter.
“No, it’s not, and I’ll show you what you have missed out on now.” And with that, he gave his next order, which made my heart sink into my stomach. “Rest.”
Fuck.
Right in front of us, whilst walking, the Lickitung closed his eyes and dropped on the ground, snoring. Already, I could see his skin looking better.
“Rapid Spin!” I yelled, and Squirtle jumped, and his spinning shell hit the sleeping pokemon right on his head, making him grunt in his sleep, but not enough to wake him up. The bruise that the Rapid Spin had caused was soon healed as well. This was terrible because I don’t think Squirtle had the energy left to overcome his healing.
I don’t think Frederick would be amused if I gave the order to try and drown the Lickitung by shooting an unceasing Water Gun in his face. Injuries happening over the course of the fight was one thing, but aiming for that was another.
That said, I don’t think I had that many other options. Later, far later, once Squirtle was evolved and had a greater pool of attacks and options, using Rest like this would have been tantamount to giving up.
Unfortunately, Frederick had correctly judged the level we were at, and while Squirtle could wail a bit on Lickitung, he wouldn’t able to deal the amount of damage that would-
Wait a minute.
“Hey, is there a ring out?” I asked him, because so far, the fight had happened in the confines of the field.
Frederick smiled. “Sure.”
This was going to be a gamble. “Push him out with your Water Gun, but make sure to make the path you are going to push him on wet first!”
Squirtle obeyed and a stream of water first hit the space between the edge of the ring and the sleeping pokemon, before moving on to the Lickitung. For a few seconds, nothing happened before the force of the Water Gun started to slowly move him.
I grimaced, because that was taking too long. Squirtle didn’t have a lot of stamina left, and shooting out a Water Gun that strong for so long at this point would completely exhaust him. Not to mention that Lickitungs were not light pokemon. Pretty sure the thing was heavier than I was.
“Not a bad idea,” Frederick said, “you’re not bad on your feet, but you need to be more aggressive. I don’t doubt that you will be more effective later on, but right now, the way you’re fighting is not to your advantage, and it won’t be for a good, long while. Wake up, boy.”
Despite being so firmly asleep that even the continuous Water Gun that had slowly been dragging over the field had not woken him up, the Lickitung obeyed the command of his trainer by opening his eyes, getting up and extending his tongue to start blocking the water stream.
A few seconds later, the stream petered off, with Squirtle being truly spent, and panting.
Frederick waited a few seconds, to see what I would do, and I knew what I had to do.
“I give up, it’s our loss.” The words felt like ash in my mouth.